Red Cross staff checking on people flooded out in Samoa. Photo: Twitter @IFRCAsiaPacific

Transcript

NAMULAUULU TAUTALA MAUALA : At the moment the initial damage assessment by government coordinated by the Ministry of Women Community and Social Development is occuring in Savaii. The government has given us through the NDMO (National Disaster Management Office) 48 hours for results of any initial damage assessment. For Samoa Red Cross there has been household assessments focusing on the humanitarian assistance that our affected communities need and at this point in time it's water and sanitation that is first on the list for devastated families by the flooding. There is a cleanup specifically by families and community work so that is actually what's happening. Red Cross has already operated in providing relief supplies and the very initial needs of our people. And Savai'i has also done their assessment and this is the Red Cross work, and also done their distribution of relief supplies.

SARA VUI-TALITU: How many Red Cross workers and volunteers are helping in Samoa?

NT: Well we have 70 on the ground and we have 50 volunteer blood donors on standby because there is still the dengue outbreak to deal with, and our blood donors are actually recruited and bled to make platelets for our haemorrhaging dengue patients so that work is still going.

SV: I guess the conditions are quite ripe for mosquito habitats?

NT: Exactly and so that is a fear at this point in time. But that will depend on the work that we do on the ground. We are actually sort of merging the two emergencies and we have already alerted people to be aware of how that could be better mitigated.

SV: Has power been fully restored now or is work still needed in that area?

NT: There are areas where the power is coming out except for a few areas cos there are a lot of power lines within communities the Electric Power Corporation is working on to make sure there's no other consequences happen.

SV: Has water been fully restored now?

NT: Same with water, but the support by the Samoa Red Cross seeing that they had been distributing clean water harvesting tanks through the other project, have been working with community caretakers of these assets to make sure there is access of their community people to the rainwater. So there has been this support this point in time in areas particularly without any water supply. But there is restoration of the reticulated water supply in a lot of areas now depending also on the electricity for the water pumps to work.

SV: What would your advice be for communities now?

NT: Our advice for communities? Well our usual advice from the MOH is to ensure they boil water and for everyone to share resources, like water and sanitation, which is the main problem now. We are sure that if we can do well on the ground there should not be any major outbreak due to this issue.

SV: Any other challenges at the moment for you and your work?

NT: We have been calling to all our other partners to assist us with the hygiene kits. So there has been some assistance by Caritas Samoa who has given us 100 hygiene kits and we are yet to hear from Ministry of Health about the hygiene kits given to them via UNICEF. And our board members have pleaded to the business community for assistance in getting more support so we can make some localised goods for hygiene kits, because there is a great need.